Marine Humvees get a second life

QUANTICO, Va. — Many wrote off the Humvee when Army and Marine Corps officials chose to double down on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program and scrap Humvee recapitalization plans.

However, budget realities have led the Marine Corps back to the Humvee as leaders realize they don’t have the funding to buy enough JLTVs to replace their Humvee fleet of 24,00 trucks. Right now, Marine officials expect to buy 5,500 JLTVs in 2017.

To make up for the gulf between current Humvee numbers and the planned JLTV buy, the Marine Corps will launch a Humvee improvement program. Marine acquisition leaders started a study to collect the research done in previous years by the Pentagon and industry to upgrade the Humvee.

“We’re not trying to go out and re-invent the wheel with the Humvee. We’re trying to take advantage of all the studies and efforts that have already been done,” said William Taylor, the Marine program executive officer for Land Systems.

Marine officials said the intent is not to simply restart the Humvee Recap. It is only one of the programs the Marine Corps will study as it determines its options to upgrade the Humvee.

Humvee Recap failed because the cost per vehicle came too close to the price of buying a brand new vehicle, Taylor said.

“That was the defining moment when we realized we are essentially rebuilding the Humvee and getting no better in terms of a vehicle when the price tags are almost the same,” he said after delivering a speech here at the Modern Day Marine annual conference.

This upgrade program will have a clearly defined price limitation to ensure it doesn’t meet the same fate, although that price ceiling has not been specified yet, a Marine official said.

What the Marine Corps wants to do is return the Humvee’s performance back to when it was not loaded down with so much armor, Taylor said.

“We’re trying to recapture capability that was already resident in the vehicle before we upgraded with armor,” Taylor said. “That’s the critical node in which we started to lose performance, payload and reliability when we up armored them to go into theater.”

Industry has already worked on upgrades for the Humvee to include the suspensions, drive shafts, and lightening the vehicles, Taylor said. The Corps hopes to pick and choose which ones they can afford.

“The next phase essentially tries to price those out in logical packages to see what gives us an optimum solution in terms of recapturing lost performance, lost pay load, lost reliability,” Taylor said.

This work will not affect the amount invested into the JLTV program, Taylor confirmed.

He said the Army has kept a close eye on the Marine Corps’ work with the Humvee improvement program. That’s not to say the Army will sign off on a similar Humvee upgrade.

“If this program continues to progress [the Army] will at least have interest,” Taylor said. “I don’t know if they will have a commitment to buy. They have slightly different requirements than the Marine Corps in terms of mobility.”

There’s nothing wrong with the HUMVEE for the purposes intended. It was not designed as a front line combat vehicle. This shows a sensible requirements “retreat” to a hi-lo mix equipment, which is financially sensible.

I have been driving the Humvee for 8 years when its not armored it can go anywhere. I have driven it all over at the ntc ft. irwin. Only issues now do to there age and punishment frames are starting to crack.

The HUMVEE platform is beyond its weight and strength limits now and there are things like electrical power and fuel efficiency (Mileage) that require huge modifications. When you look at what needs to be changed, you end up looking at the cost of a new vehicle anyhow.

It’s primary mission should have been limited to a STAFF CAR for the Generals. It has been delegated as an an armored fighting machine (without the armor) by some idiot that never had to be in one while under attack!!! It is just a bigger “jeep”…

I agree with macman, BRING BACK THE JEEP!!!! During Korea and Viet-Nam, we used jeeps for everything under the sun(plus afew that weren’t) and they lasted until they disintegrated. You could keep them going after being shot to he**, burned out and even sunk! I haven’t ever heard of a hummer being driven off the battlefield afterr being burned,or even shot up much less sunk!!!!! Furthermore you can’t hardly carry but 3or4 stretchers on them!

General Motors SOLD the HUMVEE manufacturing to CHINA!!!!!! It is no longer an American product? Does this mean any future purchases will come from China now? Between General Electric, and General Motors, it is very hard to tell who is left and what is left in America? “Token” manufacture is still in the US to make it look good to the Public.

I should have clarified, the hull is FRAG 2 and I believe the FRAG 5 that we rolled with in Iraq could be removed. The point I was trying to make is that there isn’t a canvas door underneath that armor. When we got back from Afghanistan last year we had a fleet of two-seat armored M1151s waiting for us — to replace the 4 seat M998s we turned in before we left.

Humvee was not sold to China, Hummer was discontinued as a brand in the US. The Humvee is built by American General, not General Motors. I love caps-lock, it makes words and ideas seem insistent or more important than they are.

Hey.. want to create jobs in America? Scrap the old ones and start fresh.. we are going into 2013!! Use the old ones for Stateside– National Guard duties and give our military cutting-edge technology. “My two-cents”.

There are at least two Chinese automobile manufacturers building Humvee copies, possibly with the assistance of AM General. Both Humvee copies rely heavily on imported U.S.-made parts including chassis, gear box, and diesel engine. It appears[according to whom?] that at least one company, Dongfeng Motor Corporation (DFM), has the full consent and cooperation of AM General.[citation needed] Both manufacturers claimed that they will be able to gradually increase the percentage of indigenously made content on the vehicles in the future, since the PLA is unlikely willing to accept any equipment that relies largely on foreign made parts.

I drove Jeeps, Deuce and a Halfs, and Gamma Goats in the 1970s and body armor, such as it was, and sand bags on the deck were the only protection. Using those vehicles today would exponentially increase our casualties.

Retired Army here! Budget cuts for the military defending the nation with broken down refurbished crap in the first place, just never set well with myself or my battles in any branch of service.

Simple fix:: take the raises and fancy cars , homes and all the bs bait incentives from the senators and staff. Second make big spending cuts in the Whitehouse NO MORE VACATIONS while our troops starve and use broken equipment.

How does it compare to the old M-151 jeeps? I really don’t know but inclined to think HMMVs safer than they were. As far as usage I think the M-151s got used for everything from ambulance to a mounted howizter didnt’ they?

Feel free to visit Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. and meet our Wounded Warriors. Then you will see what happens when our troops are given humvee’s to protect USA.
2017 is NOT acceptable !!!!!!!

the jeep j8 is nothing like the jeep the military used from the 40’s thru the early 80’s. the M151A2 was the last model used by the Marine Corps which was a dangerous vehicle to drive. and it had only 2 pulling wheels right front left rear​.in its time the M151 series jeep was great, but now there are much better vehicles to use and safer. we need to keep pace and mordenize our military in all things. oh upgrade is good. i was a 3531, 3521, 3522 and 3529 in the span of 20 years.

KEEP THE UNDER ARMOR..NOW A DAYS YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE AN IED MIGHT BE.…..STATESIDE OR IN COUNTRY…YES THE JEEPS DID ONE HELL OF A JOB FOR MANY YEARS.…..THERE ARE VERY FEW STILL AROUND.….……DID YOU KNOW DIAMLER/CHRYSLER LLC SUED HUMVEE FOR THE FRONT GRID PATTERN???????? JEEP HAS A PATTEN ON IT.….……TOO BAD HUMVEES ARE NO LONGER MADE FOR PUBLIC USE.….….I LIKED THEM.…BUT I’VE DRIVEN A JEEP PRODUCT FOR 30 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!